From the book:
"The final trait — the fact that peer production creates resources protected as a commons (sometimes called a “common- property regime”) distinguishes the outputs of peer production as public resources that anyone can access or use without money changing hands or the negotiation of cumbersome licensing agreements. This aspect of peer production was deeply important to Benkler, and helps justify the use of a specialized term to differentiate modes of production rooted in market- based exchange or government fiat from those that occur in peer production. Yet because the term “commons- based peer production” is a mouthful, we follow others — including Benkler himself — by shortening it to “peer production.”"